KD Tait
In a major escalation of imperialist repression, the British state has proscribed Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act. This measure, championed by the Labour and Tory warmongers alike, marks a qualitative sharpening of the bourgeoisie’s war on dissent. It must be unconditionally opposed by every class-conscious worker, socialist, and opponent of British imperialism.
Palestine Action’s crime? Direct action against British arms dealers—specifically Elbit Systems, the Israeli weapons manufacturer complicit in the slaughter of Palestinians. By targeting Elbit factories, RAF bases, and corporate accomplices of Zionist terror, Palestine Action has exposed the blood-soaked machinery of British imperialism and its support for the genocidal Zionist state. For this, they are branded “terrorists”—while the real terrorists sit in Parliament, wear uniforms, and drop bombs.
Let’s be clear: this is not about “violence.” It is about the capitalist state defending its sacred right to profit from imperialist butchery. As Lenin taught, the bourgeois state is nothing but “a special body of armed men” for the suppression of the working class. This ban proves once again that the British ruling class will stop at nothing to silence resistance to its imperialist crimes.
More than 500 people have already been arrested, including pensioners and disabled protesters, for the “crime” of holding placards or wearing the group’s insignia. The law threatens up to 14 years in prison for anyone merely deemed to “support” the group. This is the face of capitalist democracy—one rule for the rich, the boot for the rest.
The reformists and liberal NGOs whine about “free speech” and “civil liberties,” but they offer no programme to fight state repression. The answer lies not in courts or petitions, but in mass class struggle. The British working class must break from the pro-imperialist Labour Party and build a new workers’ party armed with an anticapitalist programme to lead the fight against capitalism, imperialism, and Zionism.
We demand:
- Down with the proscription of Palestine Action!
- Drop all charges against protesters—free all political prisoners!
- For workers‘ action to boycott and sanction all trade and relations with the Zionist state!
- British troops and arms out of the Middle East—smash imperialism through workers revolution!
Only the socialist revolution can bring justice to the oppressed and end the imperialist bloodletting. Victory to Palestine requires not liberal protest, but the defeat of British imperialism at home and abroad through international socialist revolution!